An interview with Larry Hart

My first two posts featured Truth Aflame (Zondervan), a systematic theology written from a charismatic perspective. The author, Dr. Larry Hart, is a professor of theology at Oral Roberts University. He was also one of the contributors to Perspectives on Spirit Baptism: Five Views (Broadman & Holman). He graciously consented to be interviewed for this blog.

JR: Understandably, you use your book, Truth Aflame, as a textbook when teaching systematic theology at ORU. What kind of feedback have the students given you about the book?

HART: Students give me enthusiastic (and quite gratifying) feedback. They are less enthusiastic about Millard Erickson’s Christian Theology, which I use alongside Truth Aflame in my online courses. But I find him to be a great foil, his being a moderate Calvinist and my being a "Bapticostal." Erickson is a fine guide through all the postmodern turmoil.

JR: In the past few months much has transpired at ORU. With a new Board of Trustees and an ongoing search for a new president, what is the spiritual 'tenor' on campus for the coming fall semester?

HART: Morale is really high at ORU. We have strong leadership already in place and wait with positive expectancy for the new president the Lord has called. A thorough search is underway. This is a new era for ORU, and I believe her influence will spread out again to serve the whole Body of Christ.

JR: As an ordained minister in the Southern Baptist Convention are you noticing an increased openness to legitimate charismata?

HART: There is more openness, but much progress still awaits. Adapting Tertullian’s words to a new context, I’m afraid Southern Baptists may have "crucified the liberals and put the Paraclete to flight." Dead orthodoxy and traditionalism is as perilous as liberalism. There are signs of decline, which grieves me, because I truly love my mother church, which gave me the milk of the Word. Several new wineskins could pop up in the next decade.

JR: You have also fellowshipped in charismatic circles for more than three decades. Is the charismatic movement maturing theologically?

HART: I believe it is, even though there are many examples of continued antipathy or apathy toward the need for sound doctrine and loving God "with all our minds" (Mark 12:29-31).

JR: And now, a fastball right down the middle of the plate, a grooved pitch: Tell us what Southern Baptist theologian Dale Moody meant to you as a mentor and friend.

HART: I graded every course he taught. He preached my ordination. He was a truly amazing individual. His brother was a Pentecostal minister, and Dale himself cut his teeth as a teenaged preacher in Fundamentalist and Pentecostal churches. I’ll never forget a sermon he preached to a packed chapel entitled "The Charismatic Crisis," warning Baptists against pouring cold water on charismatic fires. (JR: a profile of Moody can be read here.)

JR: Finally, do have any additional writing you are working on?

HART: Perspectives on Spirit Baptism is selling quite well (if my royalty checks are any indication), and a follow-up volume on tongues may be in the works. I’ve written a little volume, entitled "For God So Loved the World: The Biblical Doctrine of Grace," which I may enlarge and submit to a publisher. My wife keeps nudging me to finalize some popular works I’ve done, but I’m dragging my feet a little. And I’ve started a Christology volume—I love my Christology class! What a day to be proclaiming the true Jesus in these confused and chaotic times!